Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet is a 1986 thriller mystery film directed and written by David Lynch. The film begins with the protagonist discovering a severed human ear, which he takes to the police. He begins to investigate the matter himself, and discovers a seamy underworld within his quaint suburban town. The title is taken from a Bobby Vinton song by the same name, which is sung by Isabella Rossellini's character in the film (in a venue called The Slow Club).

Synopsis

The film begins with peaceful images of suburban living, followed immediately by a man suffering from a heart attack. While walking home after visiting the man in the hospital, his son, Jeffrey Beaumont (played by Kyle MacLachlan), finds a human ear in a field and takes it to the police. His curiosity piqued, he begins investigating the matter himself. In the process, he discovers that within his quaint suburban town exists a seedy underworld of sexual exploitation and brutal violence. A complex relationship develops between Jeffrey, his innocent girlfriend Sandy Williams (played by Laura Dern), who is the daughter of a police detective, and Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Jeffrey discovers that Dorothy is being forced to have sex with Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), a maniacal gangster who has kidnapped her husband and son.

Frank's drug

Throughout the film, Frank Booth uses a mask to breathe a gas from a tank. The identity of this gas is a subject of controversy. Lynch's script specified helium, to raise Frank's voice and have it resemble that of an infant. However, during filming, Hopper, an experienced drug user, claimed to have insight into Frank's choice of drug and that helium was inappropriate.

"...I'm thankful to Dennis, because up until the last minute it was gonna be helium - to make the difference between 'Daddy' and the baby that much more. But I didn't want it to be funny. So helium went out the window and became just a gas. Then, in the first rehearsal, Dennis said, 'David, I know what's in these different cannisters.' And I said, 'Thank God, Dennis, that you know that!' And he named all the gases." - David Lynch, LYNCH ON LYNCH (ed. Chris Rodley) p.143-144

In a documentary on the DVD version of the film, Hopper identifies the drug as amyl nitrite. Some people maintain it was oxygen. Subtitles on the DVD suggest nitrous oxide ('laughing gas').

Origins and production history

Blue Velvet's origins may lie in Lynch's childhood, spent deep in the forests of Spokane, Washington, a Northwestern setting similar to that of the film. For Lynch, there was a definite "autobiographical level to the movie. Kyle is dressed like me. My father was a research scientist for the Department of Agriculture in Washington. We were in the woods all the time. I'd sorta had enough of the woods by the time I left, but still, lumber and lumberjacks, all this kinda thing, that's America to me like the picket fences and the roses in the opening shot. It's so burned in, that image, and it makes me feel so happy." Chute, David (October 1986). "Out to Lynch". Film Comment, p. 35. If Lynch's childhood memories inspired the setting of Blue Velvet, the actual story of the film originated from three ideas that crystallized in the filmmaker's mind over a period of time starting as early as 1973, but at that time he "only had a feeling and a title." Bouzereau, Laurent (1987). "An Interview with David Lynch". Cineaste, p. 39.

After finishing The Elephant Man, he met producer Richard Roth over coffee. Roth had read and enjoyed Lynch's Ronnie Rocket script but did not think it was something he wanted to produce. He asked Lynch if the filmmaker had any other scripts but the director only had ideas. "I told him I had always wanted to sneak into a girl's room to watch her into the night and that, maybe, at one point or another, I would see something that would be the clue to a murder mystery. Roth loved the idea and asked me to write a treatment. I went home and thought of the ear in the field." Bouzereau, Laurent (1987). "An Interview with David Lynch". Cineaste, p. 39.

The second idea was an image of a severed, human ear lying in a field that has since become one of the most striking visuals of the film. "I don't know why it had to be an ear. Except it needed to be an opening of a part of the body a hole into something else...The ear sits on the head and goes right into the mind so it felt perfect," Lynch remarked in an interview. Robertson, Nan (October 11, 1986). "The All-American Guy Behind ‘Blue Velvet’". The New York Times. For the filmmaker, the severed ear was the perfect way to draw Jeffrey into a secret world that lies at the heart of the film.

The third idea that came to Lynch was Bobby Vinton's classic rendition of the song "Blue Velvet" and "the mood that came with that song a mood, a time, and things that were of that time." Borden, Lizzie (September 23, 1986). "The World According to Lynch," Village Voice. p. 62. This song proved to be such a favorite with Lynch that he not only has Vinton's version in the film but Dorothy also sings it during one of her performances at the Slow Club. The song continues the blue velvet motif that appears throughout the film from the curtain or robe of velvet in the opening credits to the piece of material that Frank carries with him.

Once these three ideas came to Lynch, he and Roth pitched it to Warner Brothers who showed interest in the project. So, Lynch spent two years writing two drafts which, by his own admission, were not very good. The problem with them, Lynch has said, that "there was maybe all the unpleasantness in the film but nothing else. A lot was not there. And so it went away for a while." Rodley, Chris (Ed.) Lynch on Lynch. Faber and Faber. p. 136. After his experiences with Dune, Lynch returned to Blue Velvet. He wrote two more drafts before he was satisfied with the script. Conditions at this point were ideal for Lynch's film: he had cut a deal with Dino de Laurentiis that gave him complete artistic freedom and final cut privileges with the stipulation that the filmmaker take a cut in his salary and work with a budget of only $6 million. Blue Velvet was also the smallest film on the De Laurentiis' roster and so Lynch was left alone for the most part. "After Dune I was down so far that anything was up! So it was just a euphoria. And when you work with that kind of feeling, you can take chances. You can experiment." Rodley, Chris (Ed.) Lynch on Lynch. Faber and Faber. p. 137.. Because the material was completely different from anything that would be considered mainstream at the time, Laurentiis had to start his own production company to distribute it.

The finished film was cut down from an original four-hour length to its final 120 minute length. The missing footage was put in storage and apparently lost.

Blue Velvet as a Lynch film

Blue Velvet introduced several common elements of Lynch's work, including abused women, the dark underbelly of small towns and unconventional uses of vintage songs (Bobby Vinton’s "Blue Velvet" and Roy Orbison’s "In Dreams" are both featured in disturbing ways). Red curtains also show up in key scenes, which has since become a trademark of Lynch films. It was also the first time Lynch worked with composer Angelo Badalamenti, who would contribute to all of his future full-length films.

Awards

Isabella Rossellini won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead in 1987.

David Lynch and Dennis Hopper won a Los Angeles Film Critics Association award in 1987 for Blue Velvet in categories Best Director (Lynch) and Best Supporting Actor (Hopper).In 1987 National Society of Film Critics gave the film Best Film, Best Director (David Lynch), Best Cinematography (Frederick Elmes) and Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper) awards.Also David Lynch was nominated for the 1987 Best Director Academy Award.

Trivia

The exterior scenes of 'Lumberton' were filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Only one shot in the film had to be cut for an R-rating. When Dorothy is slapped by Frank after the first rape scene, one was supposed to see Frank actually hitting her, instead it cuts away to Jeffery in the closet,wincing at what he has just seen. Many say this is a much more disturbing scene due to the change.
Lynch's original rough cut ran about 4 hours long. He was contractually obligated to deliver a 2-hour movie by D.E.G. and cut many small subplots and character scenes. To this day, footage of the deleted scenes has never been found and only stills remain. David Lynch's final cut of the film ran one frame under two hours.
A number of musicians have sampled Dennis Hopper's character Frank Booth in this movie:
- the Mr Bungle song "Squeeze Me Macaroni" features the sample, "One thing I can't stand is warm beer, it makes me fucking puke!!" dialogue at the end.
- Anthrax's "I'm The Man '91" has him clearly saying "Fuck that shit!" which Frank Booth says in response to what type of beer Kyle MacLachlan's character says he likes. The song also contains a sample of Frank Booth saying "I can still hear your fucking radio, you stupid shit".
- Pigface's unreleased remix "Sickaspfuck", found on their 2001 best of album, begins with Frank's shouting of "Let's fuck! I'll fuck anything that moves!"
- The Louisiana band Acid Bath also samples Frank Booth in the song "Cassie eats Cockroaches", the final track on "When The Kite String Pops". The song also samples "A Clockwork Orange".
- The Ministry (band) song "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" features the sample, "Let's hit the fucking road!" dialogue halfway through.
- Amon Tobin in turn referenced Blue Velvet and Frank on the 1998 album Permutation, with the song "People Like Frank", which also samples music from Angelo Badalamenti's score.
Blue Velvet is quoted a few times in the Kevin Smith movie Clerks.
Blue Velvet was referenced in an episode of Arrested Development. Wayne Jarvis comments on Gob's puppet Franklin, asking (in an imitation of Kyle MacLachlan), "Why do there have to be puppets like Frank?"
Willem Dafoe was originally considered for the role of Frank Booth, as were Robert Loggia and Richard Bright.
Isabella Rossellini wore a blue velvet dress at the Academy Awards Ceremony the year that Lynch was nominated for Best Director.
Peter Travers, the film critic for Rolling Stone magazine, named Blue Velvet the best film of the 1980s.
Benediction wrote a song, "Dark is the Season" about Blue Velvet which lyrics references directly to the movie. It is recorded on the Dark is the Season EP. The lyrics sheet further states "See the fil Blue Velvet by David Lync, freak out & blow your mind!!!"
In Robocop 2 the drug under development is "Blue Velvet" and the scientist working on the drug is named Frank. When the drug is tested it Kane gives the Lynchian response "It's making my teeth wiggle."
In a brief shot where Jeffrey is clandestinely photographing Frank, the shoebox that the camera is disguised in reads "Jarman" (possibly a reference to filmmaker Derek Jarman).

References and Notes

1. David Chute, "Out to Lynch," Film Comment, October 1986, p. 35.

2. Laurent Bouzereau, "An Interview with David Lynch," Cineaste, 1987, p. 39.

3. Bouzereau, p. 39.

4. Nan Robertson, "The All-American Guy Behind ‘Blue Velvet,’" The New York Times, October 11, 1986.

5. Lizzie Borden, "The World According to Lynch," Village Voice, September 23, 1986, p. 62.

6. Chris Rodley, ed. Lynch on Lynch, Faber and Faber, p. 136.

7. Rodley, p. 137.

External links

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